Suresh Kalmadi, the former president of the Indian Olympic Association, and of the organising committee for the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, has been charged with corruption.

Kalmadi and nine others, including Delhi 2010 secretary general Lalit Bhanot and director general VK Verma, were charged with cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy.

All the men deny the charges and have pleaded not guilty.

The case will be heard at a fast-track court in Delhi.

The charges relate to the alleged illegal award of a contract to Swiss Timing Omega to install a timing, scoring and results system, a move that is said to have caused a loss of more than $18 million to the Indian government.

The company has long denied any involvement in the wrongdoing, saying that it simply “responded to a classic tender offer which was done in a completely transparent” manner.

India's Central Bureau of Investigation arrested Kalmadi in April 2011 "for conspiracy to cause favour to a company in Switzerland while procuring timers and scoring equipment for the games."

He was sacked as chairman of the Commonwealth Games organising committee in January 2011.

Kalmadi has already spent nine months in custody, but was released on bail in January last year. Bhanot spent 11 months in custody, but was also released on bail and was elected secretary general of the IOA in recent elections not recognised by the International Olympic Committee.

Sportcal